The present invention relates to a barbecue cooking tool or tongs, and in particular, to barbecue cooking tongs for holding an entire rack of ribs.
Barbecuing or char/open flame grilling has been a long standing favorite for cooking and preparing food and continues to grow in popularity. A feature of barbecuing is that the cooking process tends to include a lot of involvement by the barbecue cook for such tasks as turning the food, seasoning, extinguishing grease fires, adjusting the height of the grilling surface, and/or rearranging the location of the food items on the grill for even cooking. To assist in these tasks, a variety of cooking tools have been developed.
Some of these cooking tools are well known and have been in use for a long time such as spatulas, barbecue forks, and hinged or connected tongs for grabbing food products. Also, a number of variations of these basic tools have been developed. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. Des. 364,783, to J. Weber, incorporated herein by reference, discloses an ornamental design for barbecue tongs wherein one arm of the tongs includes a spatula and the other end includes a barbecue fork. Another barbecue tong assembly is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,934,721 to A. Walde, incorporated herein by reference. One arm of the Walde assembly includes a standard spatula and the other arm has a spatula including degreasing apertures and tines on the end thereof. The tines facilitate sliding the spatula between the grating wires of a barbecue grill and beneath the food items cooking thereon. The Walde tong assembly also includes an adjustable limiting bolt to hold the spatulas closer together for ease of use and to also prevent excessive separation.
Another prior art barbecue tool is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,955,971 to V. Goulter, incorporated herein by reference. As with Weber above, Goulter discloses a pair of barbecue tongs having a spatula on one arm and a fork on the other. The tongs in Goulter include a parallelogram arrangement coupling the two arms. The parallelogram arrangement allows the arms to be swung forward relative to one another. In this manner, the end of the tong having the fork can be swung forward of the spatula enabling better use of the fork, or likewise, the spatula can be swung forward of the fork to allow better use of the spatula. The parallelograms can also be swung such that the fork end and spatula end are even with one another for best use of the tool as a tong for grabbing food between the fork and the spatula of the two arms. A wing nut is attached to one of the pivots of the parallelogram for tightening the tool in a desired position. To change the arrangement of the arms, the wing nut can be loosened, the parallelogram swung as desired and the nut re-tightened.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,844,525 to Tarlow et al., herein incorporated by reference, another barbecue tool is taught. The tool in Tarlow includes a spatula that also serves as a fork as it has flat tined ends. Also included in the Tarlow design is a movable plate for holding food on the spatula. The end of the tool opposite the spatula includes a handle with a trigger mechanism. Pulling the trigger mechanism moves the plate down to the spatula for holding the food thereon. The trigger mechanism is spring loaded so that release of the trigger will move the plate away from the spatula thereby releasing the food item held between the plate and spatula.
The above barbecue tools work well when cooking small food items such as hamburgers and hotdogs; however, there is no prior art barbecue tool which is ideally suited to aid in cooking a rack or slab of ribs, which typically include a number of substantially parallel rib bones held together by interlocking rib meat or tissue. Barbecued ribs are a favored entree and, as with other barbecued items, continue to increase in popularity. One of the best ways to prepare barbecued ribs is to precook them by baking, steaming or other means before the final barbecuing process on the grill. The precooking assures that the ribs are cooked through thoroughly and tenderizes the ribs before searing them on the grill. As such, ribs that are not sufficiently precooked must be grilled for a longer time which tends to make the ribs dry and tough. On the other hand, ribs that are adequately precooked become tenderized so that they tend to fall apart and separate during the cooking, turning and removal process. This is undesirable as the ribs tend to separate unevenly, and many rib aficionados prefer to have their ribs served as a whole or half rack/slab.
Therefore, it is an object of this invention to provide a barbecue tool that will firmly hold together a slab of ribs during grilling. It is a further object of the invention that the tool is capable of properly holding precooked and tenderized ribs during the grilling process without separation. Another object of the invention is that the tool will not interfere with the barbecue grilling process, and will allow the ribs to be seasoned and basted with barbecue sauce without removing them from the holding tool. Additional objects of the invention are that the tool can be readily cleaned and that it is economical to manufacture. Other objects of the invention will become apparent to one skilled in the art upon reading the following summary of invention and detailed description.
In one embodiment of the invention, a barbecue cooking tool with a pair of hand holdable implements is provided. The implements are configured so as to be capable to firmly hold an entire rack of ribs therebetween during a barbecue grilling process without the ribs separating and falling apart. The tool includes a clasping mechanism for holding the implements together about the ribs.
In one embodiment the implements of the barbecue cooking tool are separable from one another during normal use.
In an embodiment shown, the barbecue cooking tool includes a first implement and an second implement. Both of the implements have spaced apart rods. A further feature of this embodiment is that the spaced apart rods of the first implement are connected by a connecting rod at one end and by a raised portion on the other end. The spaced rods of the second implement are connected by rounded portions at both ends thereof.
In one embodiment of the invention, the clasping mechanism consists of one rounded end of the second implement inserted beneath the raised portion of the first implement. The other end of the second implement maybe inserted beneath the connecting rod of the first implement as the implements are being forced by a food item therebetween.
Also, in an embodiment of the invention, the spaced apart rods of the first implement are parallel to one another, and the spaced apart rods of the second implement are parallel to one another.
Another feature in one embodiment of the invention is that the raised portion of the first implement includes a pair of posts. One post is connected to each of the spaced apart rods of the first implement. The posts are connected by a second connecting rod.
A feature of the embodiment shown is that the implements permit access to the surface area of a food item held therebetween.
In one embodiment, the rods of one implement are spaced apart farther than the rods of the other implement. Also, one implement is longer than the other implement.
Other features of the invention will become apparent upon reading the detailed description. The above features should not be read as limiting the scope of the invention which is defined by the appended claims.